Adult film company suing people who download porn

GRAND RAPIDS (WZZM) -- A California-based adult film company has filed a lawsuit against several people in West Michigan for illegally downloading videos.

An adult film company called Malibu Media has IP addresses for thousands of people and is now targeting them for copyright infringement.

Just last week, a Muskegon man was ordered to pay attorney's fees and $40,000 to Malibu Media. The case names Lonnie Sagala, as the plaintiff. He was not home when WZZM 13 News went to his house Tuesday for comment.

Sagala is accused of illegally downloading several adult videos via the internet sharing site BitTorrent. When Sagala failed to respond to the lawsuit, a default judgement was entered.

Chicago attorney Jeff Antonelli is representing some of the other plaintiffs in the lawsuits. "All cases are essentially the same. There may be some technical differences, but they all allege that the subscriber to the internet account has downloaded or uploaded, one or more of the companies copyrighted works. Usually, it's a group of 10 or more."

Antonelli says in some cases, the plaintiff settles for an undisclosed amount of money, while others fight the allegations.

So far, Malibu Media has filed over 1,000 lawsuits in several states. The most recent ones in West Michigan, were filed a few days ago in U.S. District Court.